BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE September 23, 2008
HERMANOS AL RESCATE
BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE September 23, 2008
HERMANOS AL RESCATE
In the beginning Brothers to the Rescue was organized as a response to the needs of our brothers in Cuba who were desperate enough to sail in whatever floated in order to attain freedom in the U.S. BTTR operated with the help of volunteers and the monetary support of the exile community.
After the rules were changed in 1994 and the refugees instead of being admitted to the US, were being repatriated to Cuba, our mission lost part of its value beyond the saving of lives. We held on until 2003 when we finally decided to stop our operation, after realizing that U.S. surveillance of our flights was giving away the position of those we found, even without a report of their location on our part. Our role never included facilitating repatriation.
We stopped soliciting funds, closed our office, put our records in storage, sold one of the two remaining airplanes, and continued to maintain N2506, the only surviving plane of the attack of February 24, 1996, as a physical reminder of the crime, and in order to continue with our quest for truth and justice in the murder of our pilots. A crime that still to this day remains unsolved and unpunished. The aircraft was exclusively used after 2003, on the yearly anniversary of the shoot down and it was frequently made available for viewing to visiting journalists.
This month, we have been deeply touched by what we have seen of the destruction of the two hurricanes that have devastated Cuba. In the same spirit as when we started BTTR, that is to help our Cuban brethren, we have concluded that our only viable option, at this time, is to sell the only remaining asset of BTTR: N2506. The proceeds of the sale of this airplane will be given to a proven and dedicated group of nuns: The Sisters of Charity, who have an impeccable record for delivering food, medicine, clothing and other first need items directly to the needy in Cuba as well as in Haiti, with the understanding that they will be primarily delivered in Cuba.
We, the pilots, would have preferred to see N2506, our “flagship”, the participant of hundreds of missions, and a symbol of our community’s efforts end its days in a museum as a reminder of an act of cowardice and treason, never to be repeated, however, circumstances have determined otherwise. We do this with the absolute certainty that Armando, Carlos, Mario and Pablo would have approved it.
We finally remind our community that it is a moral fallacy to punish an oppressor through the suffering of its own victims, and that our attitudes, as well as our deeds, should always reflect our own high standards of humanity, even when facing our enemy.